Indian Premier League (IPL) seems to be the hot-topic for discussion — ever since the early announcements. Not surprisingly, it is all about money, and the almost obscene amounts of moolah involved have only fanned the fire. Whether IPL is a boon or bane to Indian cricket remains to be seen when it begins, but one thing is absolutely certain that young Indian cricketers will manipulate all possible loopholes in the system to make it to the under-19 or the under-22 . This is especially crucial in the context of IPL now. The huge sums of money being doled out to these youngsters from the IPL will ensure that they will never “grow”. Recently, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Bishan Singh Bedi said in a television programme that some of the boys in the India under-19 World Cup team didn’t look under-19. They aren’t too far from the truth. I’ve been following the careers of some of these cricketers and the date of birth that they provided to the BCCI and their physical appearance just don’t match up. CASE STUDY LET’S TAKE THE cases of Tanmay Srivastava, Saurabh Tiwary. Though Test bowler Piyush Chawla wasn’t part of the under-19 World Cup team, his case is very interesting. Srivastava of UP was born on November 7, 1989 and played his first match for UP under-14 against Rajasthan on October 31, 2000 at the age of (believe-it-or-faint)10. Is that ever possible? Tiwary, too, was 11 when he played for Bihar against Orissa in the under-14 match on December 20, 2000. Srivastava, according to website cricketarchive (the website www.cricketarchive.com gives all the details of the players including the scorecard of the matches played by the player), has played a whopping total of 117 matches for the state whereas Chawla has played 118 matches. From 2002 onwards Srivastava was playing in under-15, under-17 and in 2003 he played his first under-19 match against MP. This means he has been playing under-19 for five years which is against the rules of the BCCI. Certainly, a world record of sorts, which the BCCI and the ICC must investigate. His counterpart from UP, Piyush Chawla has done what no other junior cricketer could achieve. Born on November 24 ,1988 Chawla went on the tour of Sri Lanka in 2002 October with the India under-17 team. After returning from the tour on October 9, he played under-19 for UP on October 24, 2002 (he was yet to complete 14) and within seven weeks on December 15, 2002 he was with the India u-15 team for the Asia Cup. So in 2002 , Chawla played all the three age group tournaments in a span of three months. Another record. MAKING AN EXAMPLE IF THAT SOUNDS ludicrous, sample this: Another UP player Ali Murtuza seems to have played u-14 when he wasn’t even ten and at the age of 14 he was playing the under-22 for the state. Funnily most of the UP cricketers are born in November or December. Mohammad Kaif and RP Singh in December, Raina, Srivastava and Chawla in November . Tiwary, who has a hairstyle similar to Dhoni, didn’t play any cricket for Jharkhand for three years from 2003 to 2006 after he played under-15 in 2003. If he was so talented why was he not picked for the state’s under-17 team? He played for the under-19 last year and was in the India World Cup team. ENCOURAGING CHEATS AND THE BCCI has given Rs 15 lakhs to each player for winning the under-19 World Cup. Mr Pawar, aren’t we encouraging cheats ? Prof Ratnakar Shetty, Chief Administrative Officer of the BCCI and the Treasurer of the MCA, has tackled this age menace in Mumbai by not letting selectors pick such players for the state. In fact, he was very consciously and diligently researching whether age verification tests can be carried out by the medico-legal experts. It seems, there is no other solution than to stop the age group tournaments and instead have inter-school tournaments. The advantage of having the inter-school is not only that the overage problem could be sorted out but we will get to watch educated cricketers. The present generation of cricketers see education as a purposeless exercise. Why study if without it we can earn money is the oft-repeated question and inherent logic for shunning studies. SERIOUS ISSUE THE OVERAGE trend is a serious issue and one expects Prof Shetty to take up the matter with the BCCI. He is the only BCCI official who understands the value of the cricketers having education. The rest seem to be preoccupied with the IPL and banning ICL. God save Indian cricket. FROM 2002 ONWARDS SRIVASTAVA WAS PLAYING IN UNDER-15, UNDER-17 AND IN 2003 HE PLAYED HIS FIRST UNDER-19 MATCH AGAINST MP. THIS MEANS HE HAS BEEN PLAYING UNDER-19 FOR FIVE YEARS WHICH IS AGAINST THE RULES OF THE BCCI. CERTAINLY, A WORLD RECORD OF SORTS, WHICH THE BCCI AND THE ICC MUST INVESTIGATE.